


Deleted Scenes from New Mutants 5 (2020)

by NotQuiteHydePark



Category: New Mutants (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Librarians, M/M, Multi, No Lesbians Die, Satire, Snark, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22230073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotQuiteHydePark/pseuds/NotQuiteHydePark
Summary: "I’m a librarian so I’m going to give you some LC codes instead of just saying it outright, LS BN NV SB LT."
Relationships: Douglas Ramsey/Warlock (New Mutants), Kitty Pryde/Illyana Rasputin, Kitty Pryde/Rachel Summers, Roberto da Costa/Sam Guthrie, Sam Guthrie/Izzy Kane, Xi'an Coy Manh & Danielle Moonstar, Xi'an Coy Manh & Kitty Pryde, Xi'an Coy Manh/Ava'Dara Nanganindini
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	Deleted Scenes from New Mutants 5 (2020)

Xi’an Coy Manh here. It feels great to be on a space opera road trip with my first real found family, even though, as usual, I’m not the focal character, I don’t get to kiss anyone on panel, and I’m sort of the older background mentor figure for all those wacky no-longer-teens. I cannot remember the last time I starred in a story that wasn’t about my brother, my uncle, or Madripoor, and I suspect that I will forever play the role of the refugee older sister who takes care of other refugees. I’d love to be able to use my library and information science skills for the benefit of Krakoa. Or for anyone’s benefit, really. I know: given what I’ve been through, I should just feel glad to be here. And I am. Really.

I’ve been watching Sam and Roberto and Smasher together, and I am absolutely charmed. They remind me of Kate and Rachel and Illyana, to be honest, except that for some reason that has to do with masculinity or with life in space or with the ridiculous delight that Roberto takes in sexualizing absolutely everything and everyone (but especially Sam), Sam and Roberto and Smasher get to do their sweet flirty ménage a trois thing in what’s very close to public, whereas with Kate’s girlfriends—and with me—it’s more about, and I’m a librarian so I’m going to give you some LC codes instead of just saying it outright, LS BN NV SB LT. 

I like being on this ship, most of the time, though. It’s a beautiful ship, and an efficient one. Majestic, even, with all those saturated colors and sleek not-quite-parallel lines, and not-quite-right angles. A future I can enjoy. I see Sam and Berto and Smasher interact and I look at Sam in particular and I see the way that his optimistic attitude brings joy to everyone around him and I know how much I missed him, missed all of these kids, and I want some of what he’s having. No, not like that. 

I miss Face. I still feel responsible for him. I know Leong and Nga will be OK on Krakoa till I get back but I’ve barely seen Face. Have you? I feel like he and Chamber would probably have a lot to talk about. 

Instead I’ve been watching Chamber hang out with Mondo. They bring out the worst in each other: Mondo transmits his whatever-who-cares vibe to Jono, and Jono puts a damper on Mondo’s normally good mood. 

Also I overheard a truly disturbing conversation on the observation deck. I go there to be alone, though I’m alone enough anyway on this ship, since most of the other kids on the ship are in their own ships, but nobody’s shipping me with anyone, as far as I know, especially since Kate’s dance card is now full. I miss Warbird. 

In any case, I visited the observation deck to see the pearlescent beauty of the still-coalescing stars, and there were Mondo and Jono, and Jono was asking Mondo what he thought of “this crowd,” which strikes me as a perfectly fine question.

But then Mondo said, “The girls are all fine, I guess, except for Illyana. She’s, well, she’s….”

And then Jono finished his sentence. “An animal.”

What the hell. Shut up, both of you. Just shut up. Do you even understand what risks that woman is willing to take for the sake of the universe? I mean, after the choices she made with Legion, I’ll never be truly close to her again, but respect, please. Please. Jerk.

At least Roberto loves life, and he knows how to say so, even if his Tom Selleck shtick hasn’t aged nearly as well as he thinks it has. Smasher knows how to handle him. I like that. (“Hot bird lady,” indeed. That hot bird lady could eat you for breakfast, Roberto, though I would stand in her way to prevent her from doing so. Just make sure you don’t tee off Illyana.)

You know who else loves life? Doug Ramsey. Coming back from the dead, and then ending up with a piece of your boyfriend embedded in your right arm, will do that to you. I love how useful his language power can be, in combat situations like this one, where radio codes have to be decoded, and fast. “Chatter, chatter, woof.” I’d love to be able to organize information like that and make it accessible to patrons. But not in the heat of battle.

Speaking of battle Illyana’s quite the battle leader. “This isn’t a fight—it’s a battle,” she told us as the boarding party approached, which made me wonder if she was thinking in Russian and something got lost in translation, because in the American English I learned that’s like saying “this isn’t a meal—it’s breakfast.” Or “this isn’t a book—it’s a novel.” It’s what we in information science call a category mistake, or a solecism.

But it was a battle, and I trust Dani absolutely, and she trusts Illyana, so here we go. There we went. I wish I hadn’t been assigned to Mondo and Chamber, but I’m not the battle captain, and I do understand an org chart.

I’ve also got psy-links that let me see the other fields of battle, and I will say that remote-viewing Illyana’s fight with those hapless Shi’ar murder-jerks was probably my favorite part of our trip so far. 

You know how people desexualize me, because Orientalism, because I’m a caregiver figure, because LS BN NV SB LT, because Warbird and I never got to fall in love on panel? Well, Illyana has the opposite problem. At this point she invites it, and draws power from it. People in whom she has less than no interest sexualize her and sexualize her and they have done that since…. well, for too long. 

And rather than ward it off the way some of my other friends would, with oversize sweaters and exercise pants and ultra-short haircuts, she turns it into a kind of judo; she invites people she doesn’t like to stare at her, and then distracts them while she rips them apart. I mean, it’s not like she wanted to make out with any of those murder jerks. She wanted to disarm them, literally and figuratively, and what better way to do that, when battle commences, than by asking “Do you want to make out with me?”

Also, she’s really into fighting nonhumans. I think it’s connected to her years in Limbo, but I’ve never asked. I wouldn’t ask.

I do remember when her Soulsword only worked on magical entities, though. I suppose she got a Krakoan upgrade. It’s a pleasure to watch that blade fly.

Oh, I almost forgot about my own villain fight. I came up with a new fighting technique: I took this big bad guy made of brown rocks, and exposed him psychically to a big stack of current superhero comics, and then I told him to punch himself every time he saw somebody get inappropriately sexualized, or fridged. He was out cold in minutes, and only spit out one wildly rude remark. Honestly, I had fun.

Then we all got thrown into deep space. I’ll tell you what happened next when I see you next month. I hope Roberto and Sam and Smasher are all OK. I’m pretty sure Illyana is. That girl can take care of herself.

So can I. But sometimes I wish I didn’t have to.

I miss Warbird. I miss Warbird a lot. We had something special. We were going to open an art space together. I really hope she comes back soon.


End file.
